CP 158 Report Annual 2016
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Project title: Application and Management of Biopesticides for Efficacy and Reliability (AMBER) Project number: CP 158 Project leader: Dr David Chandler University of Warwick Report: Annual report, January 2017 Previous report: Key staff: Jude Bennison,Clare Butler Ellis John Clarkson, Roma Gwynn Rob Jacobson, Andy Lane, Gill Prince, Mark Ramsden, David Talbot, Erika Wedgewood Location of project: University of Warwick Warwick Crop Centre, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Wellesbourne, Warwick CV35 9EF UK Industry Representative: Rob James, Thanet Earth Marketing Ltd, Barrow Man Road, Birchington, Kent, UK, CT7 0AX Date project commenced: 1st January 2016 Date project completed 31st December 2020 Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2017. All rights reserved DISCLAIMER While the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board seeks to ensure that the information contained within this document is accurate at the time of printing, no warranty is given in respect thereof and, to the maximum extent permitted by law the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board accepts no liability for loss, damage or injury howsoever caused (including that caused by negligence) or suffered directly or indirectly in relation to information and opinions contained in or omitted from this document. © Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2017. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including by photocopy or storage in any medium by electronic mean) or any copy or adaptation stored, published or distributed (by physical, electronic or other means) without prior permission in writing of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, other than by reproduction in an unmodified form for the sole purpose of use as an information resource when the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board or AHDB Horticulture is clearly acknowledged as the source, or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. All other trademarks, logos and brand names contained in this publication are the trademarks of their respective holders. No rights are granted without the prior written permission of the relevant owners. The results and conclusions in this report are based on an investigation conducted over a one-year period. The conditions under which the experiments were carried out and the results have been reported in detail and with accuracy. However, because of the biological nature of the work it must be borne in mind that different circumstances and conditions could produce different results. Therefore, care must be taken with interpretation of the results, especially if they are used as the basis for commercial product recommendations. Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2017. All rights reserved AUTHENTICATION We declare that this work was done under our supervision according to the procedures described herein and that the report represents a true and accurate record of the results obtained. Dr D Chandler Principal Research Leader University of Warwick, Warwick Crop Centre, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Wellesbourne, Warwick CV35 9EF UK Signature ............................................................ Date ............................................ Report authorised by: [Name] [Position] [Organisation] Signature ............................................................ Date ............................................ Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2017. All rights reserved CONTENTS GROWER SUMMARY Headline ............................................................................................................................ 1 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 2 Summary of biopesticide application assessments ............................................................ 8 Financial Benefits .............................................................................................................. 9 Action Points ..................................................................................................................... 9 SCIENCE SECTION Project background, aims and objectives ........................................................................ 10 Benchmarking: spray application ..................................................................................... 69 Results ............................................................................................................................ 70 Laboratory studies ........................................................................................................... 70 Generic observations from site visits and trials ................................................................ 72 Discussion ....................................................................................................................... 73 Conclusions..................................................................................................................... 74 Overall Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 75 Knowledge and Technology Transfer .............................................................................. 77 Appendices ..................................................................................................................... 78 Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2017. All rights reserved GROWER SUMMARY Headline Different biopesticides were evaluated on commercial nurseries against a range of pests and diseases of protected edible and ornamental crops. Opportunities to improve biopesticide performance by altering local management practice have been identified. These include modification to spray applications, and improved understanding of how biopesticide efficacy is affected by P&D population size. Background Pests and diseases (P&D) are a major constraint on the production of protected edible, and protected and outdoor ornamental crops. Chemical pesticides can no longer be relied upon as the sole method of P&D control, as significant losses of pesticide actives are occurring as a result of government legislation and the evolution of pesticide resistance in target P&D populations. Many growers already use Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPDM), in which different crop protection tools are combined, including chemical, biological and cultural methods. IPM is now a required practice under the EU Sustainable Use Directive on pesticides. In order to make IPM successful, it is vital that growers have access to a full range of control agents that can be used as part of an integrated approach. Biopesticides are plant protection products based on living microorganisms, plant or microbial extracts, or semiochemicals (behavior–modifying substances). A small number of biopesticides have been available to UK growers for some time, and an increasing number will be entering the market in the next few years. Within 10 – 20 years, the number of biopesticide products available is likely to exceed the number of conventional chemical pesticides. Biopesticides have a range of attractive properties, in particular they are low risk products for human and environmental safety and many are residue-exempt, meaning they are not required to be routinely monitored by regulatory authorities or retailers. While some biopesticides work well in IPM, UK growers have found others to give inconsistent or poor results, and the reasons for this are often not immediately obvious. Clearly, growers need to get the best out of biopesticide products in order to support their IPM programmes. AMBER (Application and Management of Biopesticides for Efficacy and Reliability) is a 5- year project with the aim of identifying management practices that growers can use to improve the performance of biopesticide products within IPM. The project has three main parts: (i) to identify gaps in our knowledge about biopesticides that are causing them to be used sub- Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 2017. All rights reserved 1 optimally in current commercial practice; (ii) to develop and demonstrate new management practices that can improve biopesticide performance; (iii) to exchange information and ideas between growers, biopesticide companies and others in order to provide improved best- practice guidelines for biopesticides. Summary In the first year of the project, the research team obtained baseline information on the use and performance of some representative biopesticide products on protected crops. Most of this work focused on benchmarking the performance of five different biopesticide products against five different plant P&D. A meeting of the Industry Steering Group identified eight priority P&D. These infest a wide range of PE, PO and HNS crops, can be difficult to manage with conventional chemical pesticides, and cause significant financial losses if not controlled. The priority P&D are: (1) western flower thrips; (2) aphids; (3) glasshouse whitefly; (4) two-spotted spider mite; (5) Botrytis; (6) powdery mildew; (7) root rots (Pythium / Phytophthora); (8) downy mildew. Note that a separate work package is being done on mushroom disease management and does not form part of this report. Six different P&D were selected for study in biopesticide benchmarking experiments using crops that represent different types of plant architecture